What Is The Best Grub Killer For Lawns

Grub Killer Buyers Guide

The spring is here, and its time to concentrate on your yard as the ground thaws and the buds start to shoot. Your lawn starts to come back to life after its winter slumber, and green shoots begin to emerge among the born thatch.

In a few weeks, your lawn will be back to its former glory, providing a luscious green landscape to your yard. However, after your grass comes around, you notice brown patches popping up in random places whats with that? You dont own a dog, and you dont remember spilling any chemicals on the lawn recently.

The reality is that something sinister is going on under the grass. Grubs are the favorite food of moles and voles, and they overwinter under your lawn, coming back to life in the summertime as the ground warms.

After investing so much time and effort into your lawn, its tragic to see the effects of grubs gnawing at the roots of your grass. Those unattractive dead patches in the lawn look terrible, and the presence of grubs attracts voles and moles to your yard.

Fortunately, you can protect your lawn using a specially formulated grub killer. These insecticide products kill grubs on contact, ensuring your lawn looks great all year.

In this section, well unpack the different types of grub killers products and help you select the formula thats the right choice for your garden and your budget.

How To Choose Grub Worm Killer: The Buying Guide

How do you choose the grub worm killer? You must consider many things, such as the brand name, price, and product quality. In addition, you should also consider whether it is suitable for your needs or not.

So how do you choose the right grub worm killer? Here are some tips that you can use to help you find a good product:

What you Should Keep in Mind When Buying grub worm killer

When shopping for a grub worm killer, there are several things to consider. You need to think about the quality of the product, the price, and even how much it will benefit your life. However, you also need to keep these factors in mind:

Inspecting Grubs In Lawn

Finding a perpetrator is a piece of cake, just check the damaged area for these pests. You will hardly confuse them with anything else, as grub worms have a peculiar body C-shape, six short legs, brown head and a cream body. Their lower abdomen is darker due to the soil particles in it. Grub worms can reach two inches in length.

Remove some of the damaged soil carefully, and check for the grub worms matching the above description. If you find five or fewer, do not worry, but they can definitely do harm to your lawn if there are over ten of them. Still, consider other factors of grass withering. For instance, in shady places, grass roots weaken and tear easily and larvae do not hatch. Another signal of these pests infecting your garden will be skunks and raccoons digging the lawn at night in search of food. It is highly likely that they are looking specifically for these pests. And we dont want them in our yards either!

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When Is The Best Time To Treat For Grubs

The best time to treat grubs will depend on whether youre preventing young grubs from hatching OR getting rid of the active ones that are causing havoc on your lawn. For grub preventers, apply these products any time between June and July as this is the time when grubs are about to hatch. This time frame is considered by experts as the most ideal period for preventative grub control.

Meanwhile, if youre looking into getting rid of existing grub damage, opt to apply your grub killer insecticide of choice on your lawn the moment you notice visible signs of damage. This is usually between early spring to early August, when grub worms are gnawing away at your turfgrass.

What Are The Best Practices For Controlling Grubs

If you want to keep your lawn in tip-top condition, year-after-year, make sure you follow these top tips when scouting for grubs.

• Test the soil every other year for nutrient levels.
• Take the soil sample to your local nursery for analysis
• Add fertilizer to give your grass the nutrition it needs during the growing season
• Remember to lay your lawn dressing before the first rains of the season.
• Use your grub killer formula in the second week of summer to stop juvenile grubs from feeding on your grass.
• When mowing your lawn, keep the grass as high as possible to encourage a strong root system.
• If you notice signs of grub infestations, cut up the turf in the affected area and look for grubs.

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Lawn Grubs//grub Worms: How To Get Rid Of Lawn Grubs

Lawn grubs are small, white, C-shaped insects that live in soil and feed on grass roots. They are the larvae of beetles, specifically Japanese beetles, May/June beetles, and chafers. A healthy lawn can withstand a few grubs munching on roots without noticeable damage, but a large infestation will kill patches of grass.Grubs are most active in late summer and early fall when theyre busy growing and preparing for winter. In the spring, they pupate into adults and emerge from the ground to mate and lay eggs. The entire life cycle takes about one year.Youre most likely to notice grubs when you see dead or dying patches of grass in your lawn. Grubs also attract animals like skunks and raccoons that dig up lawns in search of a tasty meal.

Grub Prevention Vs Grub Killer

Grub control and prevention products listed here are residual insecticides, which means they remain active for longer periods of time. Think of them like pre-emergent herbicides preventing the pest. These are applied in the early spring to help prevent summer damage of the grub larvae.

For grub killers, these are non-residual insecticides meaning theyre working for only a short period of time before deteriorating. Think of these like weed killers to eliminate the pest after. These are applied in the summer into early fall when grubs are actively eating the grass roots of your lawn and causing damage.

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How To Kill Grubs In Lawn: Curative Approach

A curative approach is suitable for solving the problem quickly, i.e. if you have discovered grub worms at your lot and would like to immediately get rid of them. It is suitable for the summer when the larvae are small and actively feed near the soil surface. This method wont be equally effective in the spring when grub worms grown and become quite large. As soon as the insects reach their maximum size , a curative approach will hardly result in removing more than 50% of grub worms on the lot.

This approach implies using Sevin and Dylox that contain carbaryl, clothianidin and trichlorfon. The latter chemical has certain restrictions as trichlorfon is banned for use on school territories of certain states, mainly because this substance is extremely soluble in water. Carbaryl has been known in the USA since 1959 and acts by destroying the insects nervous systems, thus causing death. It is toxic for humans and causes such symptoms as headache, excessive sweating, muscle weakness as well as nausea, tears and other symptoms for animals. The substance is dangerous if swallowed, inhaled or, it can be dangerous if it touches your skin. According to the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment experts, carbaryl is less effective than trichlorfon.

Preventive Approach

Our Overall #1 Rated Pick

NaturesGoodGuys Beneficial Nematodes

• Harmless to people and pets
• Natural predators that hunt larvae
• Kills over 200 species of soil pests

NaturesGoodGuys Beneficial Nematodes are shipped live with more than 30 million of them in each package. They attack and kill over 200 species of soil pests and insects.

They actively hunt for insect larvae, enter them, and attack them from the inside.

Add the nematodes to water, mix, then spray in a hand-held sprayer or backpack sprayer. As soon as youre done, its safe right away for you and your pets.

You dont have to water it in or wait for it to dry, which makes it quick and easy to use.

This all-natural method is completely safe for your pets, kills the grubs, and wont harm the environment.

Ed has been working in the pest control industry for years helping 1,000’s of homeowners navigate the world of insect and rodent management. He manages Pest Strategies now helping homeowners around the world!

Best Overall

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Signs Of Grub Damage In Your Lawn

Not sure whether you have grubs in your yard or not?

Here are a few sure-fire signs that will help you identify grub damage:

It can be tough to identify what grub damage looks like, especially since it often resembles other types of damage, like drought.

However, keeping an eye out for these six signs can help you stop grub damage in its tracks.

How To Prevent Grubs In Your Yard In The Future

Preventive measures are considered the most effective against grubs. They protect the lawn from the appearance of new grubs by the extermination of old grubs and beetles. In my top-5 favorite products list, I specifically mentioned universal killers that take care of all the insects, from their grubs and larvae to adult species.

Almost all of them stay active for several months and kill pests that can settle down on the former habitat of grubs youâve got rid of. To protect your lawn from the new grubs, I recommend re-applying the killer two times a year.

After you killed pests in spring/early summer season, it is important to spread the product on your lawn at the end of July. This way new grubs will not appear from hatches of eggs. Beetles will not have enough time to lay eggs.

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Apply Grub Control Pesticide

Grub control insecticides that contain bifenthrin, imidacloprid, or carbaryl are very effective at killing grubs in an already established lawn. Insecticides containing these active ingredients such as GrubEx, Merit, and Sevin are mostly systemic and kill when they come in contact with the grub worms.

There are liquid grub killers and granular grub killers on the market. Therefore, to get rid of grubs in your lawn, do the following:

• For granular pesticides, apply using the regular garden spreader and water the treatment into the soil to kill the grubs.
• For liquid grub killers, mix with water according to the label and spray the infested areas thoroughly to ensure the pesticide goes deep into the soil.

It is important to choose the best, most effective grub killer for this purpose. Scotts GrubEx is one of the industrys most trusted grubworm destroyers.

Affiliate links and images pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on: 2022-09-19

Timing is key

When using a pesticide to control grubs, you have two options: a grub preventer, or a grub killer.

Grub killers act almost immediately, meaning you need to apply them as soon as you see lawn damage from grub worm activity. But for grub preventers, they have a lasting effect and mostly prevent grubs from the next season.

As such, make sure you apply grub control at the right time as per this guide and the label of the insecticide youre using.

What To Do After Applying Grub Control

Unlike with weed control products, after you apply grub control, your job isnt done yet. Directly after applying grub control, you need to water your lawn thoroughly.

You need to do this because grubs live underground, so applying grub control to the surface wont do a thing. By watering the lawn, you allow the grub control to soak into the soil where it can be effective against grubs.

For the best possible results, you need to do this right away, even if the grubs arent underground already.

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Best Grub Killers Of 2022

Grubs are the white, small, c-shaped larvae of such as June beetles, Japanese beetles, and chafers. They live just below the lawns root system and feed on the roots of grass and plants. Grubs can cause heavy damage because after feeding on grass roots, they change to pupae, which hatch into beetles.A grub killer is a solution that kills grubs.

Curative insecticides are essential, short-lived products that kill all life stages of grubs. You only need to start a grub control treatment when you see signs of damage in your lawn. Grub killers may be applied up to three times per year, depending on the pesticide and the manufacturers instructions. Best grub killers available in the market are: Bayer 24 Hour Grub Killer Plus, Dr. Pyes Scanmask 10 Million Live Beneficial Nematodes, Garden Safe HG-93179 Neem Oil Extract Concentrate, Sevin 20 lbs. Lawn Insect Killer Granules and many more.

Top 5 Best Pet Safe Killer For Grubs

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Looking for the best pet friendly grub killers for your lawn?

• Natural methods of grub control
• Chemical methods of grub control
• How to use both of them safely around pets

And much more!

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Scotts Grubex Grub Killer And Preventer

You dont have to wait until your lawn becomes infested with grubs before you apply a grub killer, you can always use a grub preventer like Scotts GrubEx Grub Killer and Preventer. It is very easy to use all you have to do is put the product in your spreader, apply to your lawn, water thoroughly, and clean up.

When you apply in spring or early enough in summer, your lawn will get up to 4 months protection against grubs and other soil insects.

Do not allow grubs and other insects damage the root of your grass, once you notice any sign of these insects, get the Scotts GrubEx and apply to your lawn.

Pros

• Effective against a lot of soil insects
• Up to 4 months protection against grubs

Cons

• It is not suitable for vegetable gardens

Check it out at Amazon here.

When To Apply Grub Control 2022

If youre dealing with lawn grubs then chances are youre more than a little frustrated. These destructive pests can tear apart your lawn before you even realize you have a problem, and once you do, you typically have to wait even longer to address the issue.

But when to apply grub control, and when can you expect to see results? Well answer both those questions before diving into everything else you need to know about grub control here.

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